28 Jan UFC Charlotte Main Card Recap

UFC Charlotte is now in the books, I think its fair to say the event carried very little buzz around it, but for Jacare Souza his repeat win over the 8th ranked Derek Brunson pushes him a little closer to a shot at the UFC Middleweight title. A well time head kick started Brunson’s downfall, a few more punches finished the job, a perfectly well timed stoppage in my opinion. Souza got back in the win column after his loss to Robert Whittaker, his route to a title shot really depends on Whittaker and how long he will be out for. If Whittaker is out long term, Souza might well face the winner of Rockhold v Romero. Brunson has every right to complain about his last loss in the UFC to Anderson Sliva, he was blatantly robbed, this time he can have no complaints, his route to a title shot could be a long one.

In a way too difficult fight to score, Andre Fil upset Dennis Bermudez and should get a ranking as his reward, it was close and could have gone either way, 29-28 to Fili was about right.

Hometown fighter Jordan Rinaldi was the biggest underdog on the card, and it showed, unlike the main event this was stopped a few seconds to late.

By far the best fight on the main card was Dober v Camacho, both left a piece of themselves in the cage, and it was another way to close a fight to call, and definitely could have gone either way. How you scored the 3rd round was key, I leant towards Camacho, the judges scored it for Dober.

It wasn’t the most anticipated card, and as I have said in a previous article I would prefer fewer more stacked cards, Souza v Brunson could have been used for a PPV card for example. But that said I understand the UFC have over 500 fighters under contract, TV dates to fill and a brand to grow, so its unlikely things will change in the near future.